ABC/Heidi Gutman(LOS ANGELES) — Mahershala Ali has signed on for another role that is sure to test his limits as an actor.
According to Variety, the two-time Oscar winner is on board to executive produce, and likely take on the lead role, in the upcoming prison drama Solitary. The film, which is in the earliest stages of development, is based on Albert Woodfox’s 2019 memoir Solitary: Unbroken by Four Decades In Solitary Confinement, My Story of Transformation and Hope, which follows the 43 years he spent in solitary confinement in Louisiana’s Angola Prison.
In 1972, Woodfox and Herman Wallace were indicted for the killing of a corrections officer and convicted in 1974. In the 1990s, activists began working to appeal Woodfox’s conviction, which was overturned in 2014.
Woodfox was released in 2016 after the prosecution agreed to drop its request for a retrial and accept his plea of no contest to lesser charges.
During their time behind bars, Woodfox and Wallace campaigned for prison reform as part of the Black Panther Party. Wallace was released from prison in 2013, but died of cancer three days later.
This is the latest project for Ali, who earlier this year won the Best Supporting Oscar for his role in Green Book. Up next, the actor will star in the independent sci-fi drama Sovereign.
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